Doctor, Doctor

Until today, I had only known of one person to ever use a honorary doctorate to call himself “Doctor,” the founder of the Word of Faith movement, Kenneth Hagin. Looking through the Rhema Bible Training Center website, it appears that posthumously the title, cap, and gown have been quietly put in the cupboard.

Now I see that John Carlos, the former track athlete who, with Tommie Smith, raised the black power salute at the 1968 Olympics, calls himself Dr. John Carlos thanks to an honorary degree from San Jose State University.

I’ve always thought that even the D.Min. is a bit of a dodgy degree, since it generally involves an “experience” factor.

On an unrelated note, I found this in the FAQs about Rhema:

Q. Is the student body comprised primarily of single people?

A. No, approximately one-third of our students are married. In some cases, only the husband or wife attends RHEMA, but in many cases, the husband and wife attend together.

There’s obviously no math component to the Rhema curriculum. So what you are saying is that, yes, the student body is comprised primarily of single people.